Category Archives: Desert Cave

Carrying on with my 2013 efforts of checking off old leads, Jeremiah and I headed west for a day. This was primarily a recon trip to figure out access points for future searches. With a 6 AM start out of town, we had more than a half day to drive some roads and do a bit of hiking.

We started in a flurry, with several openings in the first hour of walking. The big obvious holes of course had been seen by others. But Jeremiah came across a couple smaller holes in close proximity to each other that appear to be new. They would be digs, and require removing a very old Juniper tree, so we’ll likely leave that for a future generation.

We were both surprised how much ground we had covered in the first few hours, and had to decide what to do with the rest of our day. From our stopping point on a ridge, it was apparent there was one big high point west of us that was near the cliffs on the west side of the mountain range. We decided that we would have to check that high point someday, and we could get an overview of the in-between areas if we took a shot at it today.

90 minutes later we were on top of the world catching our breath. We had a better feel for how far we could go in a day from various access roads, and the areas that should be looked at carefully. Along the way we found several spots that had promising deposits in the limestone, but very few new holes. We do have a couple distant suspicious points to get back to on future trips, and managed to still get home before midnight.

This was a somewhat spur of the moment trip. We had spent the weekend with my grandparents at their rental property in St George. My wife was unimpressed with the fact that our midwinter trip to “the warm southern part of the state” coincided with rain and snow clear down to St George itself. But overall we had a good time and found some fun activities. On our last morning down there we made the last minute decision that instead of stopping at Zion on our way home we would swing through Snow Canyon. Steph had already seen part of Zion once before, and we are planning more extensive trips in the future. So the 3-4 hours we had free seemed better spent at a new and smaller destination.

We loaded our stuff, including Jeremiah as a hitchhiker who realized our vehicle would pass his home long before my parents vehicle would arrive. (They were headed into Zion, and planning to be there most of the day.) Jeremiah humored us, since he had been through most of Snow Canyon a few weeks earlier. We ran up a few of the short trails, and enoyed the views of snow on the surrounding mountains. It was warm enough that a t-shirt wasn’t quite comfortable, but a sweatshirt was a bit too much if you were moving.

We decided to take Steph out along one of the trails that ran across the petrified sand dunes, and over part of the lava flows. Primarily because these were both things that Steph hadn’t really seen or been around before, and with a vague idea that we might poke around and see if we could find some lava tubes. I knew there were a couple tubes out there, but hadn’t found out much about them before the trip because we weren’t sure if we would have time to see Snow Canyon that weekend.

As we wandered around taking pictures, Jeremiah and I tried to explain what a lava tube looked like for Steph. She decided she understood the concept, but having never been on a lava flow she wasn’t certain what she was looking for yet. That uncertainty became hilarious over the next couple hours, as Steph would be walking ahead of us and yelling back, “I think I found something. Is this what you are looking for?”

She proceeded to be the first one to find every lava tube we discovered that day. Jeremiah and I would climb inside and look around, and Steph would walk ahead and find the next one. Ideal teamwork in this case.

We found several different tubes, basically right along the trail. Obviously many people had been here before us, and heavily influenced the route the trail took across the lava flow. Jeremiah and I felt under-prepared as we climbed into the dark areas with only our headlamps. No helmets or gloves on this particular trip. But adventure is where you find it, so we just took our time and didn’t stand up fast without looking at where our head would be going.

We felt less guilty about our single light source each, and lack of protective equipment, as we met some of the other people who had found the tubes. One large group had come to the park that day specifically to visit the lava tubes they had found on an earlier trip. This time they had come better prepared, by making certain they had at least one light for every two people. As we stayed out of their way in a wider area while they came out of the deepest part of the tube, we found ourselves having to light the path to the entrance for a couple people. And most of the group that actually had lights were holding them in their teeth while they climbed up a short section that was nearly vertical. I heard at least one kid slip and fall a few feet while still out of sight below us. (The short bout of crying was a giveaway that it wasn’t intentional.) I mentioned to Jeremiah that we may end up involved in his first cave rescue if we were unlucky. Fortunately, it seemed to be more of a surprise at falling rather than any actual damage, and everyone in their group was headed back to the entrance under their own power when Jeremiah and I zipped down to see the end of the accessible tube.

It was a neat little find for our day overall. As is unfortunately too common in well known caves, there was quite a bit of trash and human evidence everywhere. But there was also some of the brightest colored oxidization of the lava that I have seen in a while, and the tubes were also easy to find and get inside in this case. The above picture is the “hard” route out, just to see if we could do it. There is a better route to drop in through the boulder pile 20-30 feet away from the obvious large entrance.

Steph had become bored on the surface waiting for us, and wandered around a bit. We talked a bit with the group we had encountered while we waited for her return. She showed us her new discoveries, and we headed on our way. We still had some quick stops we wanted to make before we hit the freeway, and headed back north into the cold again.

Dave Shurtz volunteered to lead a mapping trip to try and blow through a project as quickly as possible. After some brief delays meeting up in the morning, we all made it to the cave. Dave gave a brief overview of how mapping should work. Instruments, sketch book layout, assignments, etc. We picked our poison on assignments and the festivities began about 10:30 AM.

Dave starting sketch books

Ben and Dan quickly picked up instruments and point. I very slowly worked on profile, and will eventually appreciate the learning experience…at the time it was an exercise in frustration being the person slowing everyone down. Dave played tour guide, helped everybody out, and cheerfully kept on top of the plan view as well.

Entrance from below, and old wooden ladders

At the narrow point just above where the steel ladder drops down we encountered our first bat–it flew past me, and then through the constriction and deeper into the cave next to Dave’s head. We estimated roughly 9″ wingspan, but it shot through too quickly to be certain.

Later, Jason watched a bat land on a big sloping boulder, crawl across it a few feet, and fly off again. Unfortunately my camera was not handy. Using my limited bat knowledge, I determined it was small, brown, and bat-like.(It also did not have ears big enough to be a Townsend.)

We made it through most of the cave on this trip. There is a small amount of mop up survey to finish next time, and couple small leads to still be checked for map purposes. And as advertised, dust masks were used and appreciated by everyone involved.

Dust masks

The cave portion of the trip was completed successfully without incident. We came back out of the dry, dusty cave into a world of rain and mud. I managed to keep my Explorer on the slick roads as we left, but occasionally more by divine intervention than any of my driving ability. Everyone safely made it back to the pavement, and headed off to other duties. The next trip to finish mapping is waiting to be planned…

Somehow I talked my way into what was basically a Shurtz family trip for this event. It was the first time in quite a while that I felt like the slow person who was out of shape and slowing everyone else down. But it was an absolute blast!

We started out with an assignment to deal with some parts missing from the gate. There is a metal bar to keep people from having to negotiate the 90 degree corner while travelling both directions. It was rumored to be at the bottom of the shaft, so Dave arrived with materials to make do.

Dave showed us the basics of making a tripod in a few minutes. We added a few extra safety features, and tested it out. Partial slow motion failure ensued. We had a good laugh, and added a couple nails to keep the ropes from being able to slide along the smooth 2×4’s. If we would have started with anything with a rough surface the initial design would have been golden.

Everybody double checked gear, and made last surface stops. Around this time we found the “missing” bar stashed in some trees and bushes 100′ away. Since the tripod was already set up and ready to go, we went ahead and left the bar to deal with on our return.

We dropped down to cave level, and decided we would skip anything requiring further vertical gear for that day. We left some gear behind and began to travel pretty light, with basic necessities like water. A couple of them had spent considerable time in the cave over the years, so Dave took some time to point out some of the important features and junctions for those who hadn’t. There were a couple potential leads a couple of them wanted to check out, and Dave trailed along and humored my picture taking while pointing out the places to be extra careful. There are parts of this cave where you do your best to reuse the same footprints and handholds everyone before you have used, to avoid additional damage.

We eventually looped back to a part of the cave I was familiar with, coming up into it from below! I was starting to understand why there were requirements that you have been on several trips to the cave before you should be considered qualified to lead trips. It is rare that I have no idea how parts of a cave interconnect, but this was one of those times. It didn’t help my cause that everyone I was following either had levitation abilities, or a shorter genetic link to spider monkeys.

Our return to the surface was relatively uneventful. Once up top we took the tripod apart, and attached the bar back to the chains below the gate so it wouldn’t disappear again. I had a great time on the trip, and got a taste of what it is like to be the slow person holding the group up. That was a very different experience for me, since years of hiking had trained me to take lots of pictures to slow me down for others with shorter legs.

This cave is well into Nevada, and requires some planning if being visited from Utah. But the extra effort of thinking through your nights is well worth it. An interesting desert cave, with some reflecting pools and a massive formation deep inside.

The cave begins with a rappel through a double opening pit. In this case we discovered some buzzard chicks still in the nest on one side. Neat to see, but a little ominous to think about this being the “ideal” nest location above where we were headed. We rappelled into the cave anyway, and proceeded to enjoy ourselves immensely.

After traveling through some massive breakdown boulders we found ourselves among formations. In some areas you have to be careful where you put your head to avoid them. In others there are neat little pools of water and some rimstone dams that create little reflecting pools. And one of the real reasons people know this cave is the massive column deep inside. It is at least 30′ high, but subject to wild exagerations of up to 80′ in many places. It is a little like going from a regular forest and then to the Redwood and Sequoia forests, your brain can’t quite wrap itself around the change in scale.

After seeing the cave, we had some daylight left. We took a detour past a warm spring near Sunnyside to clean up a bit. Warm water, and a beautiful setting in the midst of endless desert. We also discovered what happens to a metal table at a rest stop when someone backs into it, and a disturbing lack of checking the spelling on a roadsign in the western Utah desert highways.

This was my first visit to this cave. It requires a 90′ free hang rappel, then you have to get into a side passage before you get off rope to avoid going another 100′ straight down. Not a good place to be learning basics of rappelling, and best to visit after you have had some considerable practice first.

The cave itself is billed as Utah’s piece of Lechuguilla Cave. It is formed bottom up, and full of fascinating formations and unique features that aren’t normally found in other Utah Caves. There are thick deposits in some places, and in others the formations are so thick and delicate you are scared to breathe hard. In order to protect the cave there are some established routes to follow, and it is best to go with someone who has visited the cave several times to avoid getting turned around in some of the labyrinth sections. And they are able to point out some of the fun items to see like the bubblegum pink popcorn and candycane striped passageways.

We had a good time this trip, right up until we were back on the surface and discovered one of the vehicles had taken some more serious damage than initially thought on the way to the cave. Some temporary repairs were made, and we rushed back to civilization.

Old Man’s Cave is an interesting place to visit near Great Basin National Park. The cave is a maternity colony for bats in the summer. So you can only get in during the winter months. And the logistic’s are a little tough, since you have to get the key from Ely, which is a long way out of the way from the Utah side. Pre-planning and coordination are usually key elements.

This trip someone else had done all the hard work for me to get the key and permission to visit. Steph and I made a weekend out of it, staying at the exclusive Border Inn. (At the time there was not working TV or cell phone reception, that is how remote this part of the world it.) Steph opted to hang out in the room and get some things while I went caving on day 1, the next day we went through Lehman’s Cave for Steph’s first visit to Great Basin National Park.

Our first challenge for the trip to Old Man’s was getting the gate open. After fiddling for a while, Jim and Paul looked up to find one of the kids offering to help from the inside. It turns out the bat friendly gate stops an adult, but if your head is small enough you go right through. Good laugh for everybody, particularly when the gate was opened shortly afterward.

The main part of the cave is big walking passageway, with interesting domes and other solution features. A couple of us pushed almost every corner we could, while the main family friendly group headed up the main passage. We wandered all the way to the back in no particular hurry, and took plenty of pictures along the way. There are some neat big formations in the cave, but most of the little items have been damaged in some way over the years. Makes a great beginner cave in the winter, and I don’t have any problem giving it up to the bats in the summer.

Lehman’s Cave is a must see if you are in the area. Filled with formations, it is fascinating even if only from the allowed tourist trails. One of the unique things about it is the large number of shields throughout the cave.

I have the picture of Larry as the feature picture on this post. Mostly because it is one of my favorite pictures I have of a Utah Caver still using carbide. It had absolutely nothing to do with Larry’s age, he didn’t become an old man until a few years later than this…

This was the second part of jam packed day of caving. Earlier we had gone and seen Stanley’s Cave. Then we kept trucking down the road. It was an amazingly warm day in January, and we weren’t going to waste it.

Tabernacle Hill Lava Tubes are another reasonable beginner cave area. A high clearance vehicle or willingness to hike a bit is a must if you don’t want to bash up your car crossing the lava flow. The largest flow is easy walking through tunnels with occasional skylight holes broken through. There is one side tube that gets to total darkness, but much of the tube is simply in deep shadow. Again, being well known and relatively easy to access leads to a large amount of visitation, junk, and garbage. People occasionally camp inside the tube itself. I’m not sure why, it acts like a wind tunnel and blows absolutely nasty sharp volcanic dust everywhere. I wanted a shower after simply walking through it, can’t imagine how dirty you would be if you spent a night in there.

The thing you have to remember about lava tubes is that they are black. Not just dark, like any cave. But absolutely light sucking black. Every time I visit a lava tube I feel like my headlamp batteries need to be replaced, even if they are brand new. It is important to keep this in mind as you are traveling through the tube–you simply can’t see quite as well as you are used to. And it is hard to tell a rock from a hole if you aren’t paying close attention. I recommend stopping to look around, rather than trying to walk and look around at the same time.

We walked through the main tube from beginning to end with everyone along on the trip. Afterward we rattled our way across the flow to some of the other known tubes and checked them out quickly as well. Getting off the flow and onto the “smooth” desert plain was a welcome relief for everyone.

The information I have heard is that this flow was covered by Lake Bonneville, and it has accumulated a lot of “soil” over the surface of the flow because of this. Nearby younger flows are essentially bare rock, and difficult to walk on.(Impossible to drive on.) We spent the last of our daylight running around one of those younger flows in our t-shirts simply looking for additional tubes in the 60+ degree weather. We watched the full moon come up as we talked around our vehicles back on the paved road. Jeremiah absolutely crashed into sleep on the way back home in the dark, and I have to admit I was very glad I wasn’t the one driving the vehicle I was riding in.

This was the first half of an absolutely jam-packed day of caving. We had a large group and multiple vehicles. I believe it was also the first time I took Jeremiah on a big group trip.

The day started with my first visit to Stanley’s Cave. This is a popular beginner friendly cave because it doesn’t require technical equipment like ropes. It does have on tricky little downclimb that is a bit tough for short people or kids. We had an adult top and bottom since we were dealing with a few kids on this particular trip.

You will notice the cave also has a large amount of graffiti. This is one of the problems that comes up with caves that are known, and don’t have a multiple mile hike to reach them. People bring whatever they can find to enlighten future generations with their name and current crush. I’m a little torn about graffiti. When it is new, it is trashy and an eyesore. But when it starts to get older it suddenly becomes “historic.” Somewhat of a double standard in my mind.